


Method Acting

by orphan_account



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Comedy, F/F, Fluff, Kissing, Light Angst, Lumity, No beta reader, School Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:42:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26385082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Luz decides to audition for the school play and Amity decides to join her - the fact that the play is a love story has nothing to do with that decision at all.Nope.Not even a little.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter, Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 85
Kudos: 829





	1. Act I

It was the start of a beautiful new day at the Hexside School of Magic and Demonics - the sun was shining, the demon-crows were croaking their morning songs in the trees decorating the campus lawn and the hallway bells hadn't yet shrieked out their first scream of the day to hustle the students off to class.

Amity Blight, unfortunately, was in no mood to appreciate the relative serenity of that morning since she was running on only a few hours of sleep after having spent her night cramming for today's Abominations exam. Earning the Top Student badge had been a point of pride for the young witch, and she was determined to keep that honor for herself at all costs. Amity had never failed to get the highest score in every test in the Abominations class, and she wasn't going to start slipping now - even if this week's material had been harder than even she had anticipated.

Amity was still muttering the formula for how to command an abomination to sprout functional wings under her breath as she trudged through the front doors of the school, her body still so groggy from lack of sleep that she almost felt like an abomination herself. She stopped just short of colliding with a kid dressed in Potions track yellow when she noticed that a large group of students were clustered up in the hall blocking the path to her locker. Amity took a deep, calming breath and choked back her first instinct to bark out a command ordering the peasants to move aside - she was trying to get better about that lately after all - and during the pause she noticed that the crowd were all speaking in hushed voices that blended excitement and apprehension in equal measure. She blinked and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with the back of her hand to get a better look at what was causing all the commotion and realized that the halls of the school were plastered in garishly painted posters with the leering mask logo of the theater department prominently displayed.

"Oh no, not again," Amity muttered.

Hexside was well known for many things - it's nearly undefeated Grudgby team, its reputation for extremely challenging classes and its (relatively) low rate of student mortality all contributed to making it the most prestigious school of magic on all of the Boiling Isles.

In contrast with all of that, the theater department of the school had a less than stellar reputation and many of the upperclassmen considered it to be legitimately cursed considering how the last few plays had gone. Amity had only attended one of the school's productions in the past when her brother Edric had been cast as the lead in _Beast Side Story_ and the experience was one she wouldn't likely forget. She didn't think that Edric would either considering how long it had taken for him to grow his hair back after the pyrotechnics in act two had gotten out of control and set the stage on fire.

It looked like the school was determined to continue tempting fate with yet another sure-to-be-doomed performance, this time of the classic love story _Romero & Ghoulliette_. The poster even made sure to mention, in very large font, that participation would count as double extra credit for any student acting in the play.

_I can't believe anyone even halfway sane would want to audition to be in this one considering how horribly they've always gone_ , Amity thought.

_No amount of extra credit is worth getting set on fire over._

_Probably._

“Hey Amity!” a familiar voice called from down the hall.

Amity turned and felt the tips of her pointed ears flush bright pink when she caught sight of Hexside's only human student dashing towards her with an enthusiastic grin spread across her face.

“Hi Luz,” Amity replied, her eyes darting off just slightly to the side to avoid direct eye contact.

She had found, from experience, that it was much easier to talk to Luz this way. It was fairly difficult to hold a conversation when Amity was trying her hardest not to stammer or to remember how to string words together to form coherent sentences.

“Did you hear about the big play that the school is putting on?” Luz asked, her whole body vibrating with barely suppressed excitement.

“Not until a few minutes ago, no,” Amity said.

“I've already signed up to audition for a part! I've always wanted to try out acting in a play – I was a bit... less than successful in the human realm at it,” Luz said.

“Really?” Amity asked.

“Yeah, there were some creative differences over my use of unauthorized special effects,” Luz said.

“Oh?” Amity asked, feeling a small smile start to tug at the corner of her mouth.

“Well, maybe 'creative differences' is putting it a little mildly – but I think it was an overreaction to evacuate the auditorium over a few strings of sausages. I didn't even get a chance to use the fake-blood packs I'd brought either,” Luz said.

Amity cocked her eyebrow as she tried to follow along with the story, but it seemed that Luz was determined not to elaborate any further.

“Hopefully you'll have better luck with your acting career here at Hexside then,” Amity said.

“I'm sure I can't have worse,” Luz said with a slightly sheepish grin, “Will you come watch me if I get the part?”

“Of course,” Amity said, “I'll be front row center – or at least in the row just outside of where the blast zone usually is.”

“Blast zone?” Luz asked.

“It's a long story,” Amity replied.

“Well it'll be nice to have someone cheering for me in the audience – having to act out a big steamy romance in front of a crowd full of complete strangers might be a little much, even for me.” Luz said.

_Oh, right... the play this year is a love story_ , Amity thought to herself.

_So that means that if Luz gets the part she is going to be up on stage, reciting romantic poetry to someone else._

_While I'm down in the audience watching it all happen and can't do anything to stop it._

_Oh Titan, what if they have real chemistry? What if Luz ends up falling for her co-star after all their rehearsals together? What if that person ends up falling for Luz too and they start going out for real all because of one of this schools stupid cursed plays?_

“You know what – I think I'll sign up to audition too!” Amity said with a sudden brittle brightness in her voice.

“Really? That would be even better!” Luz said.

“Yeah?” Amity asked, feeling her heart suddenly skip a beat in her chest at the smile that was being directed at her.

“Definitely! I know that if you're up there with me there would be no way that I'd mess this up – and doing a play with a friend sounds way more fun anyway,” Luz said.

Amity was about to reply when Luz lunged forward and swept her up in a bone crushing hug, their faces pressed cheek to cheek.

“This is going to be so great! Are you excited too?” Luz asked as she swung Amity back and forth, forcing other nearby students to have to dodge out of the way.

“Yup, my heart is going a mile a minute,” Amity said with complete honesty as she felt her face flush brighter than fresh squeezed apple blood.

The scream of the morning bell echoed through the hallway and students began trudging off toward their morning classes. Luz lowered her friend back to the ground and straightened out the spots on her cowl where the enthusiastic hug had rumpled the fabric.

“I've got to get to my morning potions course – but I'll see you at the audition later Amity!” Luz said, dashing off and waving a quick goodbye to the stunned witch.

Amity raised a hand and weakly wiggled a few fingers in return and then shook herself out of her reverie.

_Well, there goes 4 hours of studying out the window_ , Amity thought to herself as she realized she couldn't remember any of the formulas and incantations she had been reciting to herself earlier that morning.

All she could think of was the feel of her body wrapped tightly in Luz's arms... and also a slowly dawning horror as she realized just what she had signed up for.


	2. Act II

Luz resisted the urge to peek out from behind the auditorium curtains for a fifth time as she waited for her turn to be called up to audition. The last four times she had done so the huge room had still been empty except for Principal Bump waiting in one of the front row seats with a megaphone in one hand and a clipboard in the other and she didn't think that another look would do much to improve the scenery. Not even the beret perched at a jaunty angle on top of the principal's hat-demon-thing had done much to make him a less intimidating sight.

The fact that the last few students to read for the part of Ghoulliette had all been dismissed with an extremely curt "NEXT" from Bump's fanged megaphone didn't help at all with the tension that Luz was feeling either. 

_Sure, Mattholomule had been flubbing his lines really badly but Skara sounded pretty good out there and Bump still chased her off-stage right away_ , Luz thought.

_Maybe this was a bad idea?_

Classes had dragged by all day while Luz had been waiting for the auditions but now that she was finally here backstage and ready to go on it all seemed to be happening way too fast.

She glanced down at the small paragraph of lines which she'd been given to memorize and whispered the words to herself for what felt like the millionth time, her brow furrowed in concentration as she did her best to make sure that she wouldn't mess up even a single syllable.

"Luz?" a voice whispered, punctuated by a quick tap on her shoulder.

Luz couldn't stop herself from making a sudden startled jump and a squawk of surprise, all of the tension she'd been feeling exploding out at once.

She spun around to see Amity taking a step back with a startled look of her own, her hands raised up defensively to ward off whatever strange human fit Luz was having. The air backstage echoed with the snickering of their fellow aspiring actors.

"Amity! I was wondering where you were," Luz said, relief at the sight of her friend battling with embarrassment from her minor freak-out.

"Sorry, I got caught up finishing my homework and didn't realize that it was already so late," Amity apologized.

_It's kind of cute how nervous Luz is about this though considering how reckless she can be. I guess not even someone that's faced down the emperor is totally immune to stage fright,_ Amity thought. 

"Well it's good to see you here now - I was starting to get worried that you weren't coming after all," Luz said.

"What, and miss your tryout after you made such a big deal about it? Don't count on it," Amity said with a teasing smirk.

Luz shot her a grin in return, the tightness in her shoulders already fading away at the sight of Amity's smile.

"I'll try not to disappoint - what part are you going to be reading for?" Luz asked.

Amity pulled her own paragraph of script out from the pocket of her uniform and glanced at it with feigned disinterest.

"Looks like I'm going to be trying out for Romero," she said, feeling very pleased with herself for keeping her voice calm in the face of Luz's grin.

"Wow, what are the odds we'd both be going for the two leads?" Luz said.

_Fairly high_ , Amity thought to herself after she recalled how she'd spent the earlier part of the day trying to figure out which role Luz had decided to sign up for.

Luckily for her, Willow had seen the small excerpt of Luz's script as she was reading it during their free period and had mentioned it in passing to Amity with a disquietingly knowing smirk on her face.

"Luz Noceda," Principal Bump's voice called out from the auditorium.

"Looks like I'm up!" Luz said, squaring her shoulders and thrusting the curtains aside as she strode out on stage.

She hoped that Bump wouldn't see her knees shaking from where he was standing.

A team of wild demons couldn't have dragged Amity back from peeking out of the curtains to watch Luz perform and she was struck by an absolutely shocking realization.

Luz was actually _good_.

Sure, she had started off a little awkwardly by mispronouncing her character's name as 'Juliette' for some reason but once she actually got going with her lines it was like Luz had been transformed into a totally different person. 

Ghoulliette's lines rang out, clear as a bell across the nearly empty auditorium and the quaver of emotion in Luz's voice as she recited the famous final words of the soliloquy made Amity's breath catch in her throat.

Apparently Bump agreed because once Luz had finished her final line, and then thrown a handful of confetti from her pocket up in the air for good measure, the principal was beaming broadly up at her.

"Excellent work Ms. Noceda! I'd always suspected that you had a talent for the dramatic considering how realistic your abomination impersonation had been," the old witch said.

"Thank you, sir," Luz said with a small bow, her cheeks flushed from the compliment.

Luz stumbled back behind the curtain, feeling totally drained from relief now that her turn had passed.

"Luz that was amazing!" Amity said, rushing up to take her hand.

"Do you really think so? I felt like I was going to mess up any second out there," Luz asked.

"You didn't though - Bump would have to be crazy not to cast you as Ghoulliette after that," Amity replied.

"Well then you definitely need to get your part too - I don't want to be stuck out on stage all alone again," Luz said with a nervous chuckle.

"I'll definitely try," Amity said.

Amity suddenly realized that she was still holding Luz's hand and she released her grip as quickly as if she'd been clutching a red hot poker. Thankfully Luz seemed not to have noticed. 

Despite all the nervous energy in the air backstage Amity felt nothing but calm about her own upcoming turn - after all of the magic demonstrations and grudgby games she'd done in front of crowds of spectators the thought of reading a few lines from a play in front of Principal Bump was nothing.

_It might not actually be so bad if I do get the part_ , Amity thought.

_Luz and I don't share that many classes, and we would get to see each other a lot more at rehearsals - no need to make excuses to run into her during the day._

_Not that I need to make any excuses to see Luz of course_ , Amity thought with a casualness so forced that not even she believed it.

_We could spend time practicing our lines and I'd get to see Luz in whatever cute costumes the props department manages to put together for the show... and then on the night of the performance I could help her get over her stage fright and she'll look at me with that big grin she gets when she's happy. She'll go onstage and dazzle everyone and I'll be up there with her too just in case she needs a little extra support._

_In front of the entire school._

_Including my incredibly annoying brother and sister._

_As well as my parents._

_Performing in one of the most famous romances in the history of the Boiling Isles with Luz, who I am ridiculously head-over-heels in love with._

_Except that absolutely no one, most especially Luz, knows that._

Amity's former calm vanished, as if by magic, and the young witch suddenly felt as though some practical joker had teleported a swarm of extremely agitated butterflies into her stomach. 

_There's no way that this won't turn into the biggest nightmare in the history of the theater - what's a few small fires compared to watching me spontaneously combust live on stage while I'm trying to look Luz in the eye and recite lines about how my love for her is as uncountable as the stars in the sky and deeper than the fiery pits of the Abyss itself._

"Amity Blight," Principal Bump called from the auditorium.

"Great job Blight. Why didn't you think this through?" Amity muttered to herself as she tried to fight the tide of panic starting to surge inside her.

Amity's sudden change of mood wasn't lost on Luz and she moved in closer to get a better look at her friend's condition.

"Are you doing okay Amity?" Luz asked, placing a less-calming-than-she-thought hand on Amity's shoulder.

"Fantastic," Amity croaked out.

She gave Luz a weak smile which was about as far from reassuring as possible.

_Looks like even Amity gets stage fright now and then_ , Luz thought.

_Luckily for her she's got her own personal cheer section right here to get her pumped up and ready!_

"Don't worry about it - I'm pretty sure that if I could get a smile out of Bump, then he'll clap his hands off for you. You're Amity Blight after all - you can do anything you put your mind to!" Luz said.

A bloom of warmth fluttered up in Amity's chest at the unmistakable sincerity in Luz's voice.

"Thanks, Luz," she said quietly, trying to keep her face from going pink with sheer force of will.

"That's the spirit," Luz said, "Now go out there and break a leg!"

Amity glanced up at her with a puzzled expression on her delicate features.

"Why would I want to do that?" she asked.

"Oh, it's just a human expression," Luz said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Amity snorted.

"Sounds like it would be considering how weird it is," she said.

"Yeah, we're a strange people. Anyway, don't actually go and break your leg - it feels like you barely got that cast from the grudgby game off yesterday," Luz said.

"Amity Blight!" Bump called once again, a stern note creeping into his voice.

Amity took a deep breath and stepped out onto the stage.

The glare of the floodlights in her face felt familiar enough to be calming, and Amity launched into her lines without a hint of worry in her voice. Whatever nervousness she had been feeling before was all carefully hidden from sight behind the well-crafted mask that was the public face of Amity Blight.

If Principal Bump had been annoyed with Amity for the delay, the quality of her performance was enough to put it completely out of his mind. Reading a few lines wasn't much of an acting challenge compared to years of hiding her feelings from everyone around her, and Amity threw herself into the role with everything she had.

_I hope that was enough... Luz said she was counting on me after all,_ Amity thought as she finished her final line.

Principal Bump was marking several notes on his clipboard and Amity felt a slight moment of panic from his lack of reaction, but then the old witch looked up at her with a smile.

"Ms. Blight - I had expected nothing less than excellence from you, and you did not disappoint," Bump said with fond pride in his voice.

Amity gave a quick bow of thanks at the compliment and joined Luz backstage once again.

"Told you that you'd be great," Luz said with a knowing smile.

"Well, I didn't earn this badge for being terrible at things," Amity said, giving her Top Student pin a small flick with her thumb.

"Love that confidence!" Luz said.

_I love yours too_ , Amity thought, but thankfully managed to strangle the words before they left her throat.

"They probably won't be posting up the final cast list till tomorrow - want to take off?" Amity said instead.

"That sounds good - would you want to stop by the library with me? I don't actually know anything about this play aside from the title and the little bits of script that I've heard people read for their auditions. It might be a good idea for me to get a head start on reading it all just in case I do get the role," Luz said.

The thought of getting to take an unexpected detour with Luz on the way home gave Amity a surge of happiness.

"Sure, I don't really know it that well myself except for the basics," Amity agreed.

Principal Bump watched the pair walk off together out of the auditorium doors with a small smile on his face.

"Maybe with actors like those two as my leads Hexside will finally be able to pull off putting on a play that isn't a complete fiasco," he mused to himself as he marked their names down at the top of the cast list along with the other most promising students in the various supporting roles.

He thought back to the number of times that the human transfer student had been directly involved with nearly all of the catastrophes and mayhem that had befallen the school in the few short weeks that she had been on the isles and felt a stab of unease.

"Well, even if it does turn out to be a fiasco then at least she has a good track record for getting out of them unharmed," he shrugged.


	3. Act III

Willow and Gus were used to Luz being unpredictable - it was part of her charm after all.

Even so, this was a little much.

"Pray thee sweet Augustus, wouldst thou be so kind as to lend me thy notes from this morning's illusions class? I fear I was most lax in my scholarly duties, for my mind was transported far from this mortal realm on the airy wings of love," Luz sighed, her chin propped on her fist and a faraway look in her eyes.

"Do you have any idea what is going on?" Willow whispered in Gus's ear.

"No clue - is _this_ what happens if you give Luz milk?" he wondered aloud.

The pair turned to see their human friend spear a chunk of food from her lunch tray and hold it up with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Would that my sweet Romero was this meatloaf and I could touch her to my lips with such ease," she declaimed, before popping the morsel in her mouth.

"Luz - how many fingers am I holding up?" Gus asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Three," she said.

"Her ability to count seems to be undamaged - but maybe we should take her to the healer anyway. I think there might still be something wrong with her brain if she can eat the school meatloaf with a smile on her face," Willow said.

"Guys, I'm fine," Luz said with a laugh.

"Really? Then what's with all the 'thous' and 'thys'?" Gus asked.

"I'm trying to get into character - you are looking at the new Ghoulliette in this year's play!" Luz said, beaming with pride.

"Nice going Luz! Congratulations on getting the part!" Willow said with a smile.

"So all that insanity right now was some sort of human acting ritual?" Gus asked, reaching for a notebook in case he could add something new to his store of human facts.

"Kind of? Some actors think that the way you can get your best performance is to put yourself in the mind of the character so I thought I'd give it a try," Luz said.

"Fascinating," Gus said, scribbling in his pad.

"So, did Amity end up trying out too?" Willow asked, with a slightly playful note in her voice.

"Yeah - she's actually going to be co-starring with me as Romero," Luz said.

"I never would have expected Amity would be that interested in something as time-intensive as drama considering how focused she is on her grades," Gus said.

"She's probably doing it for the extra-credit," Willow lied smoothly.

"Well whatever reason she is doing it for I'm glad," Luz declared, "She was absolutely incredible during the audition, and I'm sure that it'll be way less embarrassing to be acting in a love story with a good friend than with a complete stranger."

"I'm sure Amity wouldn't want to be up on stage with anyone but you either," Willow said.

"I'm going to try my best not to hold her back - I've already read the play backwards and forwards, but I want to be as prepared as I can be since the first rehearsal is this weekend," Luz said, her friends comment flying right over her head.

"Isn't _Romero and Ghoulliette_ a bit old fashioned though?" Gus asked, "That play practically predates the written word."

"Principal Bump might have just wanted to get back to basics considering how the last few school plays have gone," Willow said, "I've heard that some of the seniors still tell horror stories about what happened when they tried to put on _Bats_ three years ago."

"Believe it or not we actually have a play very similar to this one in the human realm," Luz said.

"Really?" Gus asked with barely concealed excitement.

"Yeah - two lovers from warring houses, lots of poetry and a few sword fights. The only major difference is that pretty much everyone dies at the end of the human version," Luz said.

"What kind of ending is that for a love story?" Willow asked with a frown on her face.

"Yeah, aren't you always saying that things are a lot darker here on the Isles than in your world? That's just messed up." Gus said.

"Pretty morbid," Willow agreed.

Luz held up her hands defensively.

"Hey, don't blame me - I didn't write it," she said.

Luz was about to launch into a halfhearted attempt to defend the good name of Shakespeare to her friends when she spotted Amity entering the cafeteria with a distracted look on her face. 

"Hey, there's my co-star-to-be," Luz called out, waving to get Amity's attention.

Amity turned to see Luz flagging her down toward the nearly empty lunch table with a welcoming smile and moved in to join the three.

"Congratulations on acing your audition," Gus told her once she had sat down.

Amity waved the comment off.

"It wasn't a big deal - competition wasn't that fierce since not many people were reading for my part anyway," Amity said.

"Well Luz was just telling us that you were really good, so I'm sure you still would have got it even if there had been," Willow said.

Amity tried, and failed, to keep a blush from blooming on her cheeks.

 _It's nice to see I made such an impression on her at the audition_ , Amity thought.

"Maybe I wasn't bad, but Luz was pretty great herself - I think even Principal Bump was impressed," Amity said, her eyes moved briefly up to Luz's face before darting to the side again.

"Aw, thanks Amity!" Luz said with a warm smile.

Luz reached out across the table and grabbed Amity's hand, giving it a small squeeze that sent the young witch's heart into overdrive.

"I'm so glad that you're here - I was going to look for you later to ask you something," Luz continued.

"Oh... w-what were you planning to ask me?" Amity asked, a nervous smile starting to flicker on and off at the corner of her mouth.

"I wanted to see if you'd like to maybe do a few practice runs of our scenes together before rehearsals start - I haven't had much luck with getting a chance to work on them with a partner yet. King was kind of terrible at it since he kept trying to change the script into a tale of conquest and revenge and it was throwing me off my cues," Luz said.

"Sure, we can do that," Amity said, feeling only the slightest sting of disappointment.

"Great! We can't do it at my place though - Eda has a very strict 'no flowery language' policy in the Owl House and she put her foot down pretty hard about it when she heard King and I practicing last night," Luz said.

For the space of about a single heartbeat Amity was going to suggest that they could practice at Blight Manor, but common sense quickly overtook her before she could say it aloud.

_I mean, I can barely talk to Luz here at school so sitting together with her alone in my room with Ed and Em lurking just around the corner with their smirking comments might be a bit too much._

_Not to mention what might happen if mom and dad were to realize that I'd brought a human home with me..._

"How about at the library then?" Amity suggested after the barest moment of hesitation.

"That would be perfect!" Luz declared, "It's quiet, not too out of the way and there's plenty of privacy."

"Yeah, there shouldn't be anyone coming along to interrupt you two there while you work on your love scenes," Willow agreed.

Amity shot the witch a suspicious look, but Willow's face had only an innocent smile to offer her in return.

"Okay then, so we meet at the library after school today?" Amity asked.

"It shall be so," Luz said, "And every hour till then shall seem a Titan's age until I can once more glimpse thy sweet face."

Amity's fork fell from nerveless fingers and clattered against the table.

"Huh?" she said in a stunned voice.

 _Fantastic Amity! How can Luz manage to resist you with eloquence like that?,_ the witch groaned internally.

"Act two, scene three - looks like we're going to need to do some work getting you caught up on the script," Luz said as she rose to take her empty tray to the trash bin.

Amity turned to see Willow still giving her a cherubic smile.

"Not one word," Amity muttered quietly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Willow replied.

"Neither do I," Gus said, "Are you also trying out that human acting ritual?"

"What?" Amity asked, her confusion written plain on her features.

"It's nothing," Willow said, "We'll see you later - Gus and I have some stuff to work on for our next class." 

Gus was about to object when Willow grabbed him gently, but firmly, by the arm and steered him out of the cafeteria with her.

Amity dropped her face into her hands and blew out a slow breath.

"How do I keep ending up in situations like this?" she asked herself.

* * *

The Bonesburough Library was, without a doubt, Amity's favorite place in the world.

It had been her home away from home for a long time - the one place where she could relax from all the pressure of her family's expectations and just be herself. The secret room she kept behind the romance sections bookshelves felt so close to her heart that just breathing in the familiar scent of its air was enough to calm her down on even her most stressful days.

Having Luz in here with her, on purpose for once, was a slightly disorienting experience. Certainly less calming than normal anyway judging by the way her nerves started to twitch wildly whenever the human brushed up against her in the rather small room.

"Thank you so much for letting me practice here with you Amity," Luz said in a hoarse whisper.

Amity rolled her eyes a bit at Luz's hushed tone.

"You don't need to be so quiet - there's a soundproofing spell built into the walls," Amity told her.

"Wow," Luz said, giving the walls of the hideout another look, "Did you cast that one yourself?"

Amity shook her head.

"No, it was already here when I discovered the room - whoever built this place must have really valued their privacy," she said.

"Lucky for us then, we can be as dramatic as we want without disturbing anyone," Luz said.

The two dug out their copies of the script which they had each been given after they had been officially added to the cast and began leafing through them.

"Where did you want to start practicing from?" Amity asked.

Luz, flipped around through her copy which was practically glowing from hi-liter marks and decorated with various doodles illustrating the scenes from the play in the margins.

"How about the big party scene? That's where Romero and Ghoulliette first meet after all," she said.

Amity flipped to the scene in her own, less drastically modified, script and found her place.

It started well - Amity found that with the script in her hand she had a convenient excuse to not have to meet Luz's eyes while reciting her lines, which all basically amounted to an extremely old fashioned way of hitting on her. Amity tried not to think too hard about what she was saying, especially when she was going on about how Luz was the most sublime creature to ever tread upon the Titan's bones.

Luz, however, couldn't help but giggle at hearing it.

Amity glanced up at her, one eyebrow raised as a mute question.

"Sorry - it's just that hearing this stuff spoken out loud by someone talking to me is a little different than reading it in my head," Luz apologized, a slight flush on her cheeks.

Amity managed to keep a straight face for about four seconds before she gave a small snort of laughter herself.

"It _is_ a little over the top isn't it?" she said.

"Right?" Luz said, "I thought the Azura books had some purple prose but this writing is downright ultraviolet."

Amity cocked her head in question.

"It's a science thing - something to do with light waves or something," Luz said.

"Ah," Amity said.

Science, as far as Amity could tell from Luz's previous explanations, was some sort of human magic. Amity wasn't totally sure if she believed all of Luz's claims about it though - the idea that humans of all people could use it to fly to the moon seemed totally crazy.

"Seriously though, how did people ever manage to talk to each other like this?" Luz asked as she tapped the back of her hand against her script for emphasis.

"I don't think anyone ever really did - if I had to figure out how to rhyme every other sentence just to ask someone what time it was or where I could find the bathroom then I'd probably go crazy," Amity replied.

Luz's laughter at Amity's example was so carefree and genuine that the witch felt her heart melt a little in her chest at the sound.

After the two managed to quiet themselves back down Luz slapped her hands gently against her cheeks twice.

"Okay, time to focus - we've got to be professionals about this. The rest of the cast will be counting on us to do our parts well," Luz said in as stern a voice as she could manage.

"Right," Amity agreed with a nod.

"Maybe it would help if we try to get into character a bit?" Luz proposed.

"In what way?" Amity asked.

Luz stroked her lower lip with a knuckle for a moment as she thought and then turned to Amity.

"Okay – I'm going to need you to pretend that I'm not me," Luz said.

"That might be a little difficult," Amity said with a slightly teasing grin.

"I'm serious - pretend that I'm Ghoulliette, the girl that you are desperately, madly in love with. A love so intense that it keeps you up at night, and even just the sight of my face is enough to send you off into wild fantasies and daydreams," Luz said as she took Amity by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eye.

There was a moment of absolute silence in the room.

"I'll try my best," Amity squeaked out, feeling her ears burning from the heat of her blushing.

"Alright then, let's take it from the top!" Luz said.

Somehow, Luz's suggestion actually worked. Amity did find it was much easier to play her part as long as she was able to pretend that Luz was someone else entirely. 

_It's nice to know that all that time I spent learning to compartmentalize wasn't wasted,_ she thought to herself.

Before long the pair had flown through two acts worth of scenes together, each growing more comfortable with pronouncing the archaic language of the play and rarely needing to glance back at the script for their lines. In what felt like moments they had arrived at one of the most climactic scenes of the play.

Amity and Luz stood across from one another, the soft light from the few candles that were the rooms only source of illumination casting dancing shadows on the walls.

“Is thy love truly as strong as you claim?” Luz asked, “Strong enough to forsake thy family pride to consort with one who they would name an enemy?”

Amity felt a sting in her heart, but pushed it aside. She took Luz's hand, feeling her boldness grow with the encouraging warmth of their contact.

“That strong yes, and stronger still – pride is a hollow thing compared to the warmth of loves embrace. For your sake I would cast off this name and all its history and be your Romero alone, for all the swords of my family raised against me could never cut me as deep as your rejection,” Amity said.

Luz's eyes grew wet with tears and her breath hitched in her throat.

“Then come, Romero, and accept that embrace which you so desire,” Luz said.

The stage directions had called for them to hug at this point, and Luz wrapped her arms tight around Amity's back, pulling her in close.

Amity felt her skin prickling over, chills battling with warmth as she wrapped her own arms around Luz in return.

"Will you truly now be my Ghoulliette, and mine alone?" Amity asked quietly.

"Yes, my Romero. I would throw aside all of the gold in my family's vaults for you – it is dull compared to the shining gold of your eyes," Luz breathed out as she leaned in closer, her lips so near to Amity's that she could almost feel the warmth of them.

Amity froze.

"Um... that's not the line," she said, her voice a whisper.

A blaze of red flared across Luz's face.

"Ah... wow, you're right it isn't," she said.

The pair stood stock still, their arms still holding one another tight.

“I guess... um... I was maybe getting a little too into character there,” Luz said with an awkward chuckle.

The silence in the room stretched on for a beat.

_Amity Blight, you will NOT kiss Luz right now!_

_She was just acting right now – she'd totally freak out if you took her seriously. Luz doesn't even sound anything like this normally - she's under the influence of bad poetry!_

The chiming sound of Amity's scroll echoed like a bomb blast in the rooms quiet and the pair jumped apart as though the others touch was scalding.

“Oh crud, its my mom,” Amity said, “I think she's probably wondering where I am since I was supposed to be home an hour ago.”

Luz shook her head quickly, the look in her eyes still dazed.

“I didn't know it was that late already,” she said, “I should probably get home too or else Eda will send Hooty out looking for me.”

She shuddered at the memory of the last time that had happened.

The two looked over at each other and then both quickly dropped their gaze.

“Did... did the practice help as much as you thought it might?” Amity asked.

“Yeah,” Luz said extremely quickly, “I... uh... I learned a lot. Pretty sure we're going to do great when we have to start the real rehearsals.”

“Totally,” Amity agreed.

There was another pause.

“I should probably get going then,” Luz said, “I'll see you tomorrow at school Amity.”

“Yeah, see you at school Luz,” Amity said.

Luz turned and flicked the switch to open the secret door and started to duck out.

“Hey, Luz!” Amity called out on impulse.

Luz froze in the doorway and turned back to face Amity.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Would you want to maybe try another script read through together tomorrow?” Amity asked.

“Yes!” Luz said, “Yes... that sounds like a great idea.”

“Cool,” Amity said.

“Cool,” Luz agreed, throwing in a thumbs up for emphasis before dashing out through the halls of the library at top speed.

* * *

It was comfortably cool and dark up in Luz's attic room at the Owl House, and King's oddly whiny snores as he nestled down at her feet were usually the most soothing sort of white noise for her, but sleep was far out of her reach today.

_A thumbs up? Really? Is that what I've been reduced to?_

Luz ground the palms of her hands hard against her eyes and suppressed a frustrated groan.

_Maybe this getting in character stuff is more powerful than I thought... it almost seemed like Amity meant it when we were doing that last scene._

_Right up until I blew it with my improvising at the end that is._

_Wait, what exactly did I blow there? The scene?_

_Or the mood?_

_Oh._

_Oh no._

Luz's eyes shot open and her hands clutched tight at her blanket.

“I think I'm falling in love with Amity,” she whispered to herself.


	4. Act IV

Luz felt her heart stop in her chest as she watched the blade dart out, quick as the flick of a basilisks tongue toward Amity. She had to keep her fists clenched hard down at her side to stop her hands from flying up to cover her mouth, but before she could even make a sound Amity's own sword had swept out in a glittering arc and deflected the incoming weapon in a shower of golden sparks.

 _Oh my god, she looks so cool_ , Luz thought.

Amity pressed her attack, lunging forward with a dancer's grace and batted her opponents sword aside with contemptuous ease before sinking her own blade into his chest to the hilt.

Jerbo reeled back, clutching at his heart with a loud groan.

“Alas,” he coughed, “I have been bested – farewell cruel world.”

The witch boy crossed his eyes and fell flat on his back, his tongue lolling out of his mouth rather grotesquely as he twitched and jerked before finally falling still.

“A little too over the top with your death scene there Jerbo,” Principal Bump called through his megaphone from his seat at the front of the auditorium.

Jerbo sat up and shot the principal an apologetic smile.

“Sorry sir, it's just that it's my last scene in the play so I wanted to go out with a bang,” he explained.

“Amateurs,” Bump muttered to himself, massaging his temples in frustration.

While Jerbo and the director were busy debating the merits of a memorable death scene, Luz found herself with her eyes glued to Amity as she wiped the sweat from her face with a small towel. She'd been practicing the choreography for her dueling scenes for the last twenty minutes of the rehearsal, and it was still fairly strenuous work despite all of her athletic training.

Luz knew that she shouldn't have been so worried during the practice – the swords that the cast had been using were marvels of magic provided courtesy of the illusion track students that had been drafted to help serve as stage crew; the blades were nothing more than shaped beams of light that passed harmlessly through flesh, but which were still able to clatter and clang against each other with a loud noise and a satisfying shower of sparks.

She couldn't help it though – watching Amity get attacked had prompted an almost overwhelming instinct to want to shove her out of danger and then start laying down enough ice and fire glyphs to reduce the auditorium to rubble.

Of course if she did that then she wouldn't get a chance to watch her co-star in action, parrying the clumsy attacks of her opponents and then moving in for the kill with lightning-fast reflexes, every line of her body flowing in motion as one with her sword.

 _Would it be weird if I thought that watching this might be doing something for me?,_ Luz mused to herself.

Amity slashed again with her illusion-sword as she restarted the dueling scene with Jerbo and Luz felt her breathing quicken ever so slightly as a particularly flashy clash of their blades left Amity's face outlined in a halo of sparks.

 _Ok, if liking this really is weird then just call me the number one weirdo on all of the Boiling Isles_ , Luz confirmed to herself as she absently fanned her flushed face with the dog-eared copy of her script.

Principal Bump called a halt to the stage-fighting practice after Amity dispatched Jerbo once again, with a much more restrained death scene this time, and Luz shook herself out of her reverie since that meant it was time for her to work on one of her own scenes.

The rehearsals had been going well for the past few weeks – after a rough start the cast had settled into the rhythm of the play and now almost all of them were already word-perfect on their parts. Amity and Luz had come in with a sizable head start on the rest thanks to their extra practice sessions in the library, and the others had turned to them for advice when they ran into difficulties. Working on the play had turned out to be much more involved than Luz had first expected and she found that at rehearsals she didn't end up spending nearly as much time with Amity as she thought she would.

The human girl wasn't sure to be more relieved or disappointed by this considering how her new... awareness... of Amity was starting to make her feel like an awkward mess whenever they did end up alone together.

 _I can't afford to let myself get tongue tied when almost half of this play is scenes with the two of us talking,_ Luz thought.

_Mostly about declaring our love for each other in super flowery language... not to mention all the hugging or the big final kiss scene at the end._

_Though we don't actually kiss of course... we just kind of put our faces close together and they dim the lights._

_Unfortunately._

_Ah, Amity would totally freak out if she knew what I was thinking!_

Before Luz could spiral down into panic any deeper she heard Principal Bump calling for her and several of the other students to head to the stage to work on one of the scenes that had been giving them all trouble in the last rehearsal.

Amity settled down into a chair backstage and took a long drink from a bottle of water, glad for a chance to relax her sore muscles. She turned to watch Luz take to the stage along with a few of the other students that were playing various members of Ghoulliette's family – they were about to do another read through of the scene where she declared her independence from them.

Luz, of course, was doing fantastically but Skara always seemed to miss her cues and it was slowing things down.

Amity didn't really mind the delays that much. Partly it was because she had more of a chance to catch her breath, but mostly it was because it gave her plenty of time to watch Luz as she glided across the stage in the costume that the props department had made for her.

It was an elegant gown, obviously very old fashioned in style, but the illusion track students working backstage had put a lot of work into it. The skirts of the dress seemed to ripple in ethereal waves whenever Luz took a step and luminous illusory gems glittered in the stage lights in a rainbow of color in delicate patterns along her arms and torso. It was like something out of a storybook, and not at all like anything Amity would have pictured Luz wearing in a million years under normal circumstances.

 _It looks amazingly good on her though,_ Amity thought as she leaned forward, resting her chin on her fist to watch the scene unfold with a look of dreamy contentment on her face.

There was a moment, halfway through the scene, when Luz turned dramatically away from the student playing her mother and her eyes suddenly locked with Amity's across the length of the stage.

The witch and the human held each others gaze for only a few seconds at most, but the time seemed somehow lengthened to Amity as she took in the sight of Luz's face outlined in the stage lights. Before she could turn away with feigned nonchalance, Luz dropped her eyes first and an extremely nervous smile twitched across her lips.

Amity felt herself freeze up at the sight and turned to glare down at her script with an intensity that could have burned holes in the paper.

 _Good going Amity – of course Luz if going to get uncomfortable if I keep staring at her like that every chance I get,_ she berated herself.

Luz turned back toward the other actors and for a moment her mind was a total blank about her next line before the words reappeared on her lips from sheer force of habit.

 _Gotta keep it together!,_ Luz told herself as her face flared up with heat.

As the scene came to an end Principal Bump called a halt to the rehearsal and gathered the cast and crew together on the stage.

“Students, I think I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this looks like it could be the best play that Hexside has ever put on. We've managed to make it all the way to the final dress rehearsal and not a single one of you was set aflame, lost in a tear in the fabric of reality or transformed into a monster somehow,” the old witch said with a note of joyous disbelief in his voice.

There was a brief pause at that.

“What exactly do you mean by tear in the fabric of reality?” Jerbo asked with a raised hand.

“Not important,” Bump said with an airy wave, “What _is_ important is that all of you get plenty of rest tonight – the curtain goes up tomorrow and all of that hard work that you've been doing in preparation is about to be put to the test!”

“What kind of monsters did you think we were going to turn into?” another student asked from the back of the crowd.

“Good night students!” Bump said, before turning his back and walking off without another word.

* * *

Amity, in flagrant violation of the directors orders, was not getting plenty of rest at all.

Instead the witch found herself pacing back and forth around her room with all the barely restrained tension of a caged tiger.

She turned and caught a glimpse of herself in the large mirror hanging from the wall and her mind immediately jumped back to that first practice session that she had shared with Luz in her secret room at the library. Just the memory of that improvised line that Luz had made up about the gold of her eyes and the look in the humans face as she had leaned in toward her was enough to set Amity back to pacing at twice her previous speed.

_What was going on that day? What made her say that? Was it really just Luz getting way too wrapped up in the fantasy or was it maybe that she..._

Amity shook her head viciously and pruned that particular thought before it could branch out any further.

_Wishful thinking! Luz is always getting caught up in the moment and swept away by things like that. She's just super impulsive, that's all._

_It's one of the things that I... appreciate about her._

Amity considered how the other private practice sessions they had done together after the first one had gone and then concluded that she was right. None of those others had that same energy to them as the first had – Luz seemed a lot more guarded, and she didn't once suggest trying that 'getting into character' exercise again either.

They had still learned the lines of their shared scenes extremely well of course – and it had definitely been nice getting to spend that time together with Luz.

But it wasn't the same.

_Maybe all that time we spent together made Luz start to catch on how I feel about her and that's why she's been so stiff and weird lately?_

Before that particular thought could send Amity into a full blown panic her gloomy musings were interrupted by a knock at her door.

Amity considered whether or not to answer the knocks when a seam of light split the door and Emira and Edric walked in through the opening it made and then closed it up behind them with a gesture.

“Have either of you ever heard of something called privacy?” Amity asked in a sharp tone.

“Can't say I'm too familiar with the concept myself,” Edric said.

“It's fairly difficult to grasp it when you have a twin shadowing you around your whole life,” Emira agreed.

“Lucky for me I don't,” Amity said, “What do you two want?”

Edric clutched at his chest, his face contorted in a grimace of pain.

“Mittens, you wound me – why would we need to want anything to come see our baby sister?” he asked.

“Yeah, we haven't had many chances to catch up with you since you've been so busy with your latest extracurricular activity,” Emira added.

Amity stiffened.

“What have you heard about that?” she asked.

“Only good things, of course,” Emira said with a reassuring gesture.

“We have a few classmates from the illusion track in the stage crew of the show and they've been raving to us about your acting talents,” Edric said.

Amity felt some of the tension in her shoulders relax a little.

“They've also been saying that your quirky human friend isn't too bad either,” Emira said with the barest hint of a smile tugging up at the corners of her lips.

The tension returned with a vengeance.

“Yeah, Luz is pretty good at it I guess,” Amity said in what she hoped was a casual tone.

“Not surprising at all really,” Edric said, “She always seemed like she would enjoy that sort of thing.”

“The fact that you decided to sign up to be in the show came as a big surprise to us though,” Emira said, “Especially with exam season practically around the corner. Was there any special reason that made you decide to pull your nose out of your textbooks and sign up for the play?”

Amity felt her face flush crimson from her sisters teasing tone. There was no way the two of them didn't already know how she felt about Luz, even if they never said it right out in front of her. She could hide it from practically everyone else, but no one knew her as well as her own siblings.

The fact that they'd walked in on her while she was in the middle of writing her note inviting Luz to Grom probably didn't help either.

Edric, sensing that they might have pushed their sister a little too far, moved in close and threw a friendly arm around her shoulders.

“Obviously Mittens has just decided to follow in her big brothers footsteps since I was in the play last year,” he said, “Isn't that right sis?”

Emira scoffed a bit at that but went along with her twins cue.

“If that's the case then try not to follow too closely in those footsteps – it took days to get the smell of burnt hair out of the hallways after the stage fire incident,” she said.

“I'll do my best to try and be a little less flammable,” Amity said.

“Well, we just wanted to come by and wish you luck – we'll be cheering for you in the audience,” Edric said with a surprising sincerity in his voice.

“And for Luz too – your friend is pretty cool in her own unique way,” Emira added.

Amity felt a rare flash of warmth in her chest for her siblings.

“Thanks guys – that really does mean a lot to me,” Amity said.

“Well you know that we love you Mittens, even if we do like to mess with you a bit sometimes,” Edric said.

“Yeah – we just wanted to let you know that we'll be supporting you in this,” Emira said.

“And also supporting you in anything else you might decide to do afterwards,” Edric added.

“I think I need to head to sleep,” Amity said, “I should try to be as rested as possible for tomorrow.”

The twins wished their sister a good night and then left the room, through less magical means than they had entered it this time.

Amity sat back in her bed and felt a moment of real calm in her chest for the first time in what felt like forever.

A seam of light appeared in her door once again, just large enough to admit her sisters head.

“Oh, and Mittens - try not to stay up all night thinking about making out with your adorable co-star,” Emira said with a grin before disappearing back through the small portal.

Amity rolled face down onto the mattress and then screamed into her pillow.

* * *

Luz's own night had not been going much more smoothly than Amity's had so far.

The human was draped bonelessly across the living room couch staring up at the ceiling with an abstracted look on her face. She had already run completely out of distractions – her homework was finished, she knew her lines by heart and there hadn't been anything good on the crystal ball the last time she'd flipped through its channels.

Luz closed her eyes with a sigh and the memory of Amity from the rehearsal earlier that day sprang immediately to her mind, dressed in the rather dashing costume of her character and surrounded by an aura of shimmering sparkles.

Luz's eyes snapped back open.

 _Oh this is getting bad,_ Luz thought.

_My brain is starting to add on filters now. As if she needed any help to look cuter?_

Luz grabbed a cushion off the couch and crammed it over her face, possibly in the hope that it could somehow take her way from her own thoughts.

“Try not to chew a hole through that will you? King already destroyed the matching one ages ago,” Eda said as she walked into the room and dropped into a nearby chair with a steaming mug in one hand and a book in the other.

Luz lifted the cushion away and turned to her mentor with a speculative look.

“Eda, could I ask you something?” Luz said.

The gray haired witch looked up from the book she had been flipping through.

“That is sort of how being an apprentice works – you ask things, I answer them. If I feel like it anyway,” Eda replied.

Luz shifted around on the couch and sat upright, taking a deep breath as she gathered her thoughts.

“So... how do witches... um... what I mean is – if a witch likes another witch is there something special that they do to show it or what?” she asked.

“Well, traditionally the way to do it is to present them with a gift of some kind; flowers, candy, the still beating heart of one of their enemies – that kind of thing. Between you and me though kid, that stuff was already considered corny and old fashioned even when I was your age,” Eda answered.

“Oh – then whats the new fashioned way?” Luz asked.

Eda closed her book and turned her full attention to her apprentice.

“What's this all about anyway – doing more research for that soppy play that you're in?” she asked.

“Not exactly, no,” Luz said, “It's just that I... well, I think that I kind-of-sort-of just a tiny bit have a massive crush on one of my fellow cast members.”

Eda looked surprised.

“Really? What about whats her name... that one with the green hair?” she asked.

“Amity,” Luz supplied.

“Yeah, her – I thought you two were already a thing,” Eda said.

Luz gave a bark of nervous laughter.

“What made you think that? That's totally crazy,” she said.

“Well I did chaperon Grom after all, I saw you two going together there – there was even that big dance that you guys did at the end,” Eda said.

“That was just a regular dance of friendship!” Luz objected.

Eda took a long, slow sip from her mug and gazed over at Luz with half-lidded eyes.

“Well, you could have fooled me,” she said at last after the silence had stretched on to just a few degrees past uncomfortable.

“I'm serious,” Luz said, “Amity already had someone else that she'd wanted to invite but she never got around to it... we just went together as friends.”

Eda shrugged.

“Okay then – well, in that case which of your fellow theater-nerds do you have this 'kind-of-sort massive crush' on?” she asked.

Luz felt her face flush hot.

“Um... well, it just so happens that it _is_ Amity actually,” Luz said.

“Whoever could have guessed?” Eda said dryly.

“What should I do about it though?” Luz said, “I've had crushes before, sure – but never on a friend before. Or a witch either for that matter.”

“Witches and humans probably aren't all that different in things like this – love makes dorks of us all,” Eda said, “As for what you should do about it, I'd say there's two possible approaches.”

Luz leaned forward.

“Go on,” she said.

“There's the boring, cowardly way – you keep your mouth shut and if you're lucky and your friend likes you back then maybe she'll make the first move,” Eda said, ticking off a finger, “Then there's the Bad Girl Coven way where you take the initiative and just tell her how you feel.”

Luz leaned back in the couch and began to restlessly drum her feet against the floor.

“What if that blows up in my face and I end up getting rejected though?” Luz asked.

“Then you'll know how she feels – and you'll be able to move on and heal from the pain afterwards instead of driving yourself crazy with uncertainty. Plus, she might not be as opposed to the idea as you think,” Eda said.

“Do you really think so?” Luz said.

Eda thought back to the few times that the young witch had been by the Owl House to visit her apprentice and remembered seeing the shy glances and beet red faces that Amity had made around Luz, particularly whenever they were crammed up next to each other on the couch when Willow and Gus were also over and taking up the other chairs.

“Eh, anything is possible,” Eda said, “The point is that you won't know unless you try.”

On impulse, Luz rushed over and threw a hug around Eda's shoulders which the witch returned with far more practice than she had with her first encounters with the gesture.

“Thanks Eda, I really appreciate you listening,” Luz whispered.

“Anytime kid,” Eda said.

Luz released Eda from the hug and then stretched out her limbs as a wave of tiredness swept over her.

“I don't know for sure what I'm going to do yet,” she said, “But I think I'm going sleep on it and hopefully I'll have a better idea by morning.”

Eda picked up her book once again and waved a distracted good night to her apprentice.

Halfway toward the stairs Luz turned back toward Eda.

“Are you sure that you wouldn't want to go to the play tomorrow?” she asked.

Eda glanced up from her book.

“Luz – I want you to know that I love you and I'm pretty sure that I owe you my life at this point, but there is no force on the Boiling Isles powerful enough to make me sit through a full performance of _Romero and Ghoulliette_ ,” the witch said in a deadpan voice.

Luz shrugged.

“I figured as much, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.”


	5. Act V

_There's an awful lot of people wearing either hard hats or raincoats in the audience for some reason_ , Luz thought as she peeked out from behind the curtain and tried to puzzle out the reason for the theater-goers odd fashion choices.

_Well, maybe they are just taking a few sensible precautions considering how horrifying the weather sometimes gets here on the Boiling Isles?_

Bizarrely dressed or not though, there certainly were a lot of them out there. Much more than Luz had been anticipating.

If Luz was being totally honest with herself she would have admitted that she hadn't really been thinking at all about the audience that was going to be coming to see the play until she had suddenly found herself waiting backstage on the night of the performance. The sound of the crowd as they shuffled into the auditorium was a seemingly endless wave of footsteps and chattering voices in her ears - loud, but not quite loud enough to drown out her increasingly panicked thoughts.

_Why did I want to do this again?,_ Luz wondered as she felt the stress bubble up like acid in her throat.

The human frantically scanned the crowd row by row until she spotted Willow and Gus seated together and chatting comfortably as they waited for the show to start.

Luz felt a sense of relief wash over her at the sight of their familiar faces. Knowing that two of her best (and practically only) friends in any world were here to support her didn't completely manage to exterminate the swarm of butterflies which were having a bare-knuckle brawl in her stomach, but it did help.

A little bit anyway.

_Gus even brought his flags tonight,_ Luz thought, oddly touched by that fact.

_Maybe not the most appropriate thing to bring to a play, but what do I know about how they show their appreciation for the dramatic arts in this world?_

Luz stepped away from the curtain and took a deep breath that wasn't nearly as calming as she had hoped it would be.

_I wonder if they could still do this play without a Ghoulliette?,_ Luz asked herself as she started to nervously tug at the collar of her costume, which suddenly seemed far too hot and itchy for something that was made out of at least 30% pure magic.

The touch of a hand falling lightly on her shoulder snapped Luz back from that unhelpful train of thought and she turned to see Amity looking at her with concern written all over her face, and in large print at that.

"Hey - are you feeling alright?" she asked.

Luz gave a nervous chuckle.

"Who, me? I'm fine... fine. Finefinefinefine..." she replied, her voice trailing off quietly.

"It's okay to feel nervous," Amity said in a soothing tone, "I'm nervous too," she said.

"Really?" Luz said, "You look so calm though."

The young witch gave her a small, tight smile.

"It's called acting Luz - I'm pretty sure you must have at least heard of it by now," she said.

Luz couldn't help but giggle at the corny joke.

"I think maybe I've seen it mentioned in passing once or twice, yeah," she said.

Amity gave Luz's shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"You don't have anything to worry about though - you've been working harder than anyone else here to get ready for tonight," Amity told her, "You are going to do great, okay?"

Luz took another deep breath, feeling somewhat calmer now.

"Okay," she replied.

"Good - now when the curtain goes up I want you to go out there and break your legs!" Amity said with a bright smile.

Luz laughed again and pulled Amity in for a hug when she couldn't contain the feeling of warmth that had bloomed in her chest.

"It's 'break a leg' actually," she said.

"Oh," Amity said, her face reddening from a combination of her mistake as well as the fact that Luz was holding her so closely.

_You'd think I'd have gotten used to being so close to her by now after all of those rehearsals that we did, but I guess not,_ Amity thought.

"I like yours better though," Luz said as she released the hug, "Maybe I'll be twice as lucky as I would have been with just the one broken leg?"

Amity rolled her eyes at that, but she couldn't keep the smile off of her still-flushed face.

Before she could reply, the signal was given for the cast to start taking their places - the curtain would be going up soon and there was no more time to waste on playful banter.

Amity turned to head over to her mark when she felt Luz's hand shoot out and grab her own. She turned to face her and saw that the human had a serious look in her eyes, her expression totally devoid of her earlier nervousness.

"Thank you Amity - for being here with me to calm me down, and for the extra practice sessions together and for everything else. I appreciated all of it," Luz said.

Amity felt her ears start to burn pink again, but she kept her voice steady with a great deal of effort.

"No need for thanks - I'm happy to be here with you," she said.

Luz smiled and Amity noticed for the first time that there was actually quite a bit of red in the humans own small, disturbingly round ears too.

"I've got something that I want to ask you - but not until after the show. Will you stick around and wait for me once its over?" Luz asked, a slight hitch of hesitation in her tone.

Amity swallowed.

"Sure," she said.

The two remained frozen together for a moment, before they realized that the rest of the cast had already gotten to their places. Luz released her grip on Amity's hand with some reluctance, and the witch gave her a small smile before she rushed off toward her place on stage with the crimson cloak of her costume fluttering out behind her.

Luz breathed out deeply and found that she now felt strangely calm.

The show was about to begin and nothing was going to stop it - worrying about it wouldn't change anything at this point.

No matter how it went though, she knew that talking to Amity afterwards was going to require a lot more courage than just doing a little acting.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Members of the audience who were veterans of past Hexside theatrical productions had flinched when the curtains rose for the show to begin but the crowd mostly managed to remain calm otherwise.

A school play might have been a pretty dull affair in the human realm, but in a world of magic like the Boiling Isles the quality of the special effects was of a higher caliber than painted plywood sets and thrift-store costumes. When Luz walked out onto the stage she was enveloped by an enormous illusion of an ancient city that seemed to recede far behind her into the distance.

_I don't know what Bump is bribing the illusions track professor with to create this, but it was worth it,_ she thought.

When Luz turned her gaze away from the gorgeous cityscape she saw the dark hall of the auditorium spread out before her but at this point she was beyond fear. From this moment on until it was time for the final curtain call Luz Noceda was going to do her very best to put herself out of her mind and just be Ghoulliette instead.

From their seats in the audience Willow and Gus could see the subtle transformation that overtook their friend as she began to speak the lines of her first scene. She was obviously still Luz of course, but the way she moved and the tone of her voice was nothing at all like the Luz they knew so well.

“Huh, I guess that crazy stuff that Luz was doing before at lunchtime for acting practice really worked,” Willow said.

“Yeah it did!” Gus cheered, waving his flags with boundless enthusiasm.

Willow glanced over at her younger friend.

“Are you really sure that those are appropriate for the theater?” she asked.

Gus shrugged before launching into an even more complicated pattern of waves.

“They can't hurt,” he said.

“Fair enough,” Willow said.

As the story began to unfold even the most tense members of the audience began to relax and allow themselves to be drawn into the world of the play.

True, most of them could only understand every third or fourth word since the language was so archaic, but the words that they could understand were spoken with conviction and that was worth a lot of points with the crowd. Each member of the cast was giving it their all on the stage that night, but it was Amity and Luz that truly kept the audience spellbound as the shows leads.

When Ghoulliette finished her soliloquy at the end of the first act Gus was left dabbing tears from the corner of his eyes with one of his flags.

“Were you able to follow what she was saying?” Willow whispered to him.

Gus sniffed.

“Not really, but it was still so beautiful,” he said with a sob.

When things began to heat up in the second act Willow found herself on the edge of her seat as Romero slashed and stabbed her way through the fiendish servants of her own family that had kidnapped her beloved Ghoulliette, finally culminating in a duel with her older brother. Sparks flew and swords clashed with an echoing ring as the two lunged and danced across the stage until Romero, her face contorted with regret, drove her sword through her brothers heart and he dropped to the floor with a rather melodramatic death-rattle, his tongue lolling out of his head in a most disconcerting manner.

The curtain fell at the bloody culmination of the act, and the audience erupted into gasps and cheers.

“I didn't know Mittens could move like that,” Edric whispered to his sister from their seats near the back of the auditorium.

“Neither did I,” Emira said.

The two paused.

“Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on her anymore,” Edric suggested.

“At least not when there's a sword anywhere in arms length that is,” Emira agreed.

Back behind the curtain there was the usual between-act chaos as a new illusory set was conjured into existence and the actors dashed around to find their places.

Jerbo rose up from the floor and saw Principal Bump giving him a flat stare from across the stage.

“What exactly were you thinking about when you decided to go with that particular take for your death scene?” Bump asked.

“That it's better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission?” Jerbo said with a hopeful shrug.

“The only thing you're begging for is to be put back in the Detention Track,” Bump muttered, “Now hurry up and get offstage – the curtain is going up again in a matter of moments.”

Amity was hunched over with her hands on her knees, breathing hard. The swordplay scenes had been grueling to train for, but she felt a slight pang of regret that they were all done now and that her prop sword would stay sheathed at her side for the rest of the play. Halfway through her final fight sequence she had caught Luz watching her from the wings of the stage with a mesmerized look on her face and it had pushed Amity to move with more speed and precision than she had during any of her rehearsals.

Amity straightened back up once she had caught her breath and moved to center stage, where Luz stood waiting for her in the dim backstage lighting.

“You looked really cool earlier,” Luz whispered to her as they took their places.

Amity felt her heart start to thump in her chest harder than it had during the entire fight sequence.

“Thanks,” she whispered back, “You've been doing great too.”

Luz smiled and dropped her eyes, and then when she looked up at Amity again her expression was serious once more.

“Okay, we're on the home stretch now – you ready Romero?” she asked.

“Whenever you are Ghoulliette,” Amity said with a nod.

The curtain rose on the final act.

* * *

The story played out as it always had in the centuries since the script was first written and performed - there were dramatic confrontations, secret schemes laid bare and a subplot about Ghoulliette's long lost sister that all needed to be resolved before the final scene of the show could take place but they were handled one by one without a hitch. At last, with all enemies vanquished and obstacles overcome, Romero and Ghoulliette were left alone onstage with their hands clasped and looked deeply into each others eyes.

There was something different in the air then – the audience could sense it vaguely out in the darkness beyond the footlights, but up on the stage it felt like an electric current lightly moving across Amity and Luz's skin.

They had said these words to each other dozens of times at this point, drilling the lines of the script into their heads during practices, rehearsals and even the occasional impromptu read-through in the hallway between classes to quiz each others memory – but now they could both _feel_ them as though they were springing forth spontaneously from their own lips.

“Ghoulliette, will you be mine, for now and forever after?” Amity asked.

When Luz looked over at her she saw an expression in her eyes that took Amity all the way back to that first practice they shared at the library after school weeks ago. Amity found herself wondering, absurdly, how Luz would respond even though she already knew by heart exactly what she was going to say. 

“Yes Romero - until the last star falls from the sky and the flames of the Abyss smolder down to cold ashes,” Luz replied, and in that moment it felt true to her and wasn't just an embarrassingly overwritten line in a script.

The look on Amity's face after she had spoken that line made Luz's pulse race - there was a tenderness in her eyes that seemed heartbreakingly sincere.

_Amity is a really amazing actress,_ Luz thought.

_I wish that she'd look at me that way for real one day._

Amity swallowed the lump that had caught in her throat. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to drop her eyes in shyness from the expression on Luz's face. Even knowing that Luz was only acting wasn't enough to keep Amity's heart from pounding at the look of warmth in the humans brown eyes.

_I want her to look at me and not 'Romero' with eyes just like that,_ Amity thought.

"Then let us seal our vow with a kiss," she said, surprised that she had managed to keep her voice even despite the chaos in her mind.

The pair leaned in close as the lights dimmed and the curtain dropped with a rush of air like the beating of an enormous wing.

The play was finally over.

The lights hadn't yet been turned on backstage, and the sounds of enthusiastic clapping could be heard through the muffling shield of the curtain but that all may as well have been happening a million miles away to Amity.

Right now all that she could see was Luz, who was still standing close to her with an unreadable expression on her face.

_I think it's time to try doing things the Bad Girl Coven way,_ Luz thought, gathering up her courage.

Amity was about to break the silence and ask her co-star what was going on when Luz suddenly pulled her in close and then pressed her lips to Amity's in a warm, soft and completely unscripted kiss.

Amity's eyes shot open in surprise, but as she felt Luz start to pull away after a few moments to break contact she wrapped her arms possessively around the humans shoulders and kissed her back with fierce enthusiasm.

A discreet cough snapped the pair out of their private world all too soon and they turned to find the rest of the cast watching them from the side of the stage, waiting to go on for their final bow to the audience.

"You owe me 10 snails," Jerbo whispered to one of the stage crew, who reluctantly started digging through their pockets to pay off the wager.

The stars of the show were flushed red all the way up to the roots of their hair, but as the cast and crew lined up onstage they never once let go of each others hands. When the curtain rose up for the final time that night and they took their bow together the applause was thunderous.

Far in the back of the auditorium the King of Demons turned to a cloaked and hooded figure seated beside him.

"That wasn't too bad - the sword fights could have used more guts though," he said, "What'd you think?"

"It was a huge steaming load of overblown soppy mush - but I think the kid did alright for herself at the end," she replied with a knowing smile, a single long fang gleaming at the corner of her mouth.

Crouched in his directors chair backstage, Principal Bump breathed out a long held sigh of relief as Hexside School of Magic and Demonics completed its first disaster-free play in living memory.

"There really is no magic quite like the theater," the old witch said with a contented smile.

The warm glow in his heart lasted for almost a whole eight seconds until the floor of the stage collapsed in on itself with a splintering crash, sending a titanic plume of dust and debris wafting over the now screaming audience.

* * *

The moon was heavy up in the sky, casting its soft silver-blue glow over a path where two figures were walking hand in hand through the forests on the outskirts of Bonesburough.

Luz and Amity hadn't said much after leaving the theater.

Thankfully for them, and the rest of the cast as well, Principal Bump had been able to get a shield bubble up in time during the collapse to prevent any serious injuries though the pair each sported a few bruises and their costumes were definitely the worse for wear. The audience had shuffled out of the theater after learning that the students were safe, their conversations evenly split between the quality of the play and rating the destruction of the stage against previous theatrical catastrophes which they had witnessed or heard about from hushed rumors. 

"So... I guess that's what acting in a play is like," Luz said, breaking the deep silence that lay over the forest.

"Seems so, yeah," Amity agreed.

"Does the stage always collapse like that?" Luz asked.

"No - sometimes there's a fire or some kind of monster attack," Amity said.

"Ah," Luz said.

There was another beat of silence, broken only by the sounds of their footsteps crunching the leaves scattered across the path.

"What exactly was it that you had wanted to ask me after the show anyway?" Amity asked.

Luz couldn't be completely sure, but she thought she detected a very uncharacteristically playful note in the witches voice.

"Well... um... I had been planning to tell you that I... uh... I like you and wanted to ask if you might want to maybe be girlfriends - with me I mean," Luz said, cursing herself for the sudden attack of shyness.

_Where's that Bad Girl Coven energy when you really need it?,_ she groaned internally.

"Ah, I see," Amity said, giving her hand a squeeze, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that part usually come before the kiss - or is it some kind of human thing to do it backwards?"

Luz laughed nervously.

"Haha, yeah - that was just another one of my quaint human customs," she lied.

"The answer is yes," Amity said.

Luz felt a lightness in her chest unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

"Oh, I'm so glad to hear that," she said with a relieved sigh.

Amity gave a snort of laughter.

"Did you really think I was going to say no? We've been holding hands for like, a mile," she said.

"Well friends can hold hands too," Luz said defensively.

"And I also kissed you back too, in case you'd already forgotten," Amity said with an arch of her eyebrow.

Luz felt her face flush at the memory.

"Well yeah... I guess I was a bit worried that maybe you were just caught up in the moment," Luz said.

"Luz Noceda, you absolute doofus, I've been in love with you for so long that its almost embarrassing," Amity said with an exasperated sigh.

"Wait, really?" Luz asked, completely blindsided.

"Oh my Titan, yes! I'd even been planning to ask you to Grom," she said.

"Oooohhhh," Luz said.

_I really need to start listening to Eda more about things like this,_ she thought.

"Do you want to hear something _really_ embarrassing?" Amity asked.

"As long as you're comfortable telling me, sure," Luz said.

"The only reason I even signed up to do the play in the first place was because I got freaked out at the idea that you'd end up falling for your co-star somehow since it was a love story," Amity said.

Luz burst out laughing harder than she had in days at hearing her confession.

"Amity, that is completely ridiculous!" she said.

The witch tugged her girlfriend in close by her side and then ran her sharp black nails gently through Luz's hair and across her scalp. Luz felt shivers race down her spine and when Amity leaned in to kiss her she thought that she would melt into a puddle from the heat of it all.

"I was right though, wasn't I?" Amity asked her with a triumphant gleam in her eye when she broke the kiss.

Luz smiled back.

"I guess you were, yeah," she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally done! Hopefully its good enough as an ending.
> 
> I'd like to thank everyone that left comments as I was writing this fic - reading them helped give me the energy to finish this story and made it a lot more satisfying than just posting it into the void. I haven't written anything in so long that I wasn't even sure if I still could, but the encouragement was a huge help.


End file.
